


Being a Potter

by SnarryIsTheWay91



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24405241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnarryIsTheWay91/pseuds/SnarryIsTheWay91
Summary: A lone tear fell on the parchment smudging the signature. Lily Luna Potter closed and sealed the letter before leaving the Gryffindor common room to reach the Owlery. It was a hot day, at the end of the term. Most students were packing the last things before leaving the castle the morning after or were sunbathing outside, relaxing after the exams. She didn’t meet anyone on the way to the tower. Inside the owlery she looked around and soon spotted a white owl that was already looking at her
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Lily Luna Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Being a Potter

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Essere una Potter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24403510) by [SnarryIsTheWay91](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnarryIsTheWay91/pseuds/SnarryIsTheWay91). 



> This is the English version of my story "Essere una Potter" which was already published on the Italian fanfiction portal EFP back in 2013.

“Dear uncle Fred,  
today’s been a very long and tiring day, as always. However, thank Merlin and Morgana, soon I will leave behind all the rumors, whispers, and crazy looks. It has been seven long years since I have started enduring all this in silence without – even if just for a moment – letting my mask slip. I do not think I can take it any longer. I thought that after James graduated things would be better. I wouldn’t have to cross Him in the corridors anymore, think of Him more than necessary anymore. However, everything’s is the same as always, if not worse.

I would really love to live a day without “Potter” as my surname. Don’t get me wrong, uncle, I’m really proud of being Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s daughter, but I don’t think anyone understand what this means to me and my brothers. Albus was almost lucky: being the second eldest he often lived in James’ shadow, even if always in the spot light. For James, however, things has always been very different: he was the oldest son, wearing the name of his grandfather with also a very similar character and heart. As soon as he stepped into Hogwarts he was targeted and for seven long years he had to fight with the expectations of the entire Magic World. He was Prefect and then Captain of Gryffindor’s Quidditch team. Success after success but how many times I’ve witnessed him almost breaking because people are always ready to criticize.

And what about me, uncle? For me, these seven years at Hogwarts felt like a long and slow walk on a overhanging ledge made of hot coals: one misstep and I could fall right into a pack of hungry wolves. I’m the little one in my family, the only daughter, Daddy’s baby, always protected by my brothers: I was supposed to keep high my family’s honor. Flying marks, always follow the rules, a good student but never snooty or vain, always ready to help. My first big trial happened my very first day of school in front of those student that – as they already had done with my brothers – looked sharply at me while I walked towards the Sorting Hat. Where would It sort me? In Gryffindor, following my family tradition and bringing more honor to the House? Or would I be the black sheep of the family being sorted into Hufflepuff or, even worse, in Slytherin? I must confess, Uncle Fred, that the Hat really wanted to put me into Ravenclaw but I, scared to death, begged It to put me in Gryffindor with my brothers. I remember the Hat kept quiet for a very long time, as if it was looking deeply into my soul, and when it finally spoke again it was to say to me that he has never been wrong before but that night, if I hadn’t begged, he would have made its first mistake in centuries. It then announced my sorting into Gryffindor, and I passed the first task. After these years I still wonder what it saw in me that night. Maybe the courage to make a choice I knew would bring me very little joy in the future.

If I look back, now that my time here is almost over, I realize I’ve always been lonely: my brothers and cousins aside, the people that stood at my side did it mostly for my dad or because they hoped that being my friend would bring them something in return. James, Albus, Rose. Hugo and I shared this burden and tried to stick together.  
When I was in my Third Year, I saw my brother James go through a rebellious stage. He started using his charms and his natural talent at Quidditch to find a new girl every week, and his incredible powers to come up with some awesome jokes: he and his best friend really did send Uncle George that toilet after all. I’ve never seen Gran Molly so angry or Uncle George smiling so brightly, he smiles so rarely these days. But of course that horrible woman, Rita Skeeter, found out everything and wrote a disgusting article about James also mentioning things she couldn’t have known. We thought some Slytherin tipped her off.

Speaking of Slytherins, when I first arrived at school I thought that – what with the War and the suffering it brought – prejudices and House rivalry would stop. But everything was still the same. Most of my Slytherin schoolmates’ parents are former low ranked Death Eaters who saved themselves saying they acted under Imperius. Others have more prominent parents who were important Death Eaters. They acted as they have redeemed themselves, spent some years on house arrest and then started planting the dark seed in their children’s minds. Neither James nor any other of us wanted to fuel the growing hostility but we were constantly under attack: insults, jokes, everything you can think of. One day I was walking with some of my friends near the Lake and someone throw me into the water. James was livid but Professor Paciock was scary that day as he scolded two Slytherins. And then there was Scorpius Malfoy. I know what you’d tell me, Uncle Fred, same thing Uncle George and the rest of the world already told me: once a Malfoy, always a Malfoy. Until Fourth Year I would have agreed with you all: he went around with Zabini and Nott with that haughty face as if he gifted us with his mere presence. I didn’t hate him, per se, but I didn’t have any good feeling towards him either. I simply didn’t care, despite Uncle Ron often warned us against Malfoys, making Uncle Hermione and Mum really angry. Probably we would have both agreed that it was better ignoring each other: after all, our father testified in favor of his father, keeping him out of Azkaban. However, something happened in Fourth Year, and all my preconceptions had to change.

Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament again and the Goblet chose James as Hogwarts’ champion. The day of the first task the stadium was filled with students and parents, and near Malfoy I noticed Draco, Astoria and his Grandfather Lucius. I was shocked by the expression of sheer terror on Scorpius’ handsome face that day. I wanted to ask my dad about it but he too was looking at the Malfoys and his eyes were the saddest I had ever seen. Confused I looked at the family again, in time to see Lucius slapping Scorpius hissing something on the line of “you are a dishonor to the Malfoy name. You let a Half-blood like Potter beat you, just like your Father”. It was suddenly very clear to me that not only us had to fight every day with the weight of a surname. If at school that surname was what kept everyone around him away, at home everything was different. Lucius anger and resentment towards the Light and his own failures fell on the shoulders of his nephew who, since when he was little, tried so very hard to please him without the help of his own Father and Mother, who were completely submitted to Lucius. Since that day I had to learn again who Scorpius Malfoy was, and it became an obsession. Once I’ve recognized what he was hiding behind the mask, I fell victim of the incredible depth of his soul. He completely won me one year later when, thinking no one could see him, he disarmed two Slytherins who tried to attack me from behind. I saw him when he tried to escape the scene, wand still in hand. Why did he save me? I confessed everything to James and he looked at me really seriously and simply told me, “Not him, Lily”. It was their last year at Hogwarts and, despite I understood too well what my brother was trying to say me, I couldn’t help but fall in love with Scorpius. Do you think I’m stupid, Uncle Fred? Maybe I am because for an entire year I just pitied myself, running around chasing a love I knew could never be mine. Everytime I let my eyes rest on him I could hear in my head the voices of the people around me: “Have you heard? Lily Potter is dating the son of a former Death Eaters, Scorpius Malfoy” and more “No! I can’t believe it, poor his father”, “what an ungrateful child”. “Poor Harry, with everything’s done for us he doesn’t deserve this from his own daughter”. “A Malfoy and a Potter together? What nonsense is that?”. The world can be so cruel, Uncle Fred. My family, the thing I cherish the most in the entire world and what I’m most proud of - despite everything – became the very reason I couldn’t grasp what I knew would be an incredible source of happiness.  
When I returned for my Sixth Year, the first one without Rose, James and Scorpius, I thought that this impossible crush would pass with time like most do. However, soon enough I realized I was looking for him in every Slytherin I met and, silently, inside I was slowly fading.

And now I’m here, a day before I leave the castle, and I still can’t understand all this pain. Why can’t I love who I want? Why my parents’ actions must reflect on us? I desire nothing more than to be able to fly everywhere I want without worrying of what people might think. I would like to walk down the street, hand in hand with a man, without worrying if he would be enough for the daughter of the Boy Who Lived. I wish I’d run after Scorpius that day. I wish I stopped him to ask “why” and didn’t let go until he answered. I wish I was brave enough to rebel like James did and tell him how I felt. I wish I told him that I understood and that he wasn’t alone. I wish I could have erased our surname for a while and just be Scorpius and Lily so I could open my heart to him only afraid of his answer. At the end of the day, I just wish I could have been a normal teenager.

Forever yours,  
Lily”

A lone tear fell on the parchment smudging the signature. Lily Luna Potter closed and sealed the letter before leaving Gryffindor common room to reach the Owlery. It was a hot day, at the end of the term. Most student were packing the last things before leaving the castle the morning after o were sunbathing outside, relaxing after the exams. She didn’t meet anyone on the way to the tower. Inside the owlery she looked around and soon spotted a white owl that was already looking at her – “hey there” Lily softly greeted her – “you know where to go, right?”. The snowy owl hooted softly and let the girl hang the letter to its feet. Lily petted the owl’s head and then took her to the window to let her fly away. She looked until the owl was just a small dot in the horizon and then stood there for a while longer imagining the snowy owl flying above woods, fields, cities, to then reach a small graveyard outside the village near The Borrow and land on the gravestone of Fred Weasley.


End file.
